Various processing tools are utilized in relation to energy industry operations and are used to perform tasks including data collection, storage, modelling and analysis. Data from various sources (e.g., measurement and analysis data from various well locations and regions) can be aggregated in a repository for access by numerous users. Data is typically accessible by numerous users at different locations.
Data security is conceptually simple. Only certain users, either humans or software agents, may have certain types of access to certain elements of data. For the single user and that user's private data, security largely remains a simple concept. The user's data is placed in files or other storage elements in machines that the user physically controls and those storage elements are secured against access by others. However, as soon as access to data must be shared and the storage of data is on systems outside the user's physical control, then security becomes complicated. In addition, when the storage of data involves enterprise-wide or global resources and access must be arbitrated among hundreds and perhaps thousands of users, security becomes even more complicated.